Saudi Telecom Co. has entered into an agreement with Future Artificial Intelligence Co., backed by Public Investment Fund, commonly referred to as Humain, to establish a joint venture to design and operate data centers specifically designed to serve artificial intelligence within the Kingdom.
As per the Tadawul statement, Humain is to have a 51 percent stake in the JV, with stc responsible for the remaining 49 percent.
The data center, which will be created by STC via its subsidiary Digital Data and Communications Centers, also known as center3, will be constructed with a high-quality infrastructure and is capable of serving up to 1 gigawatt of power with an initial capacity of 250 megawatts, based on the customer contracts.
The drive highlights the STC’s focus on the development of the digital future of Saudi Arabia and fits the Vision 2030 emphasis on localization of high-tech digital infrastructure, promoting the acceleration of AI development, and ensuring the leadership of the Kingdom as a regional digital center.
It is also consistent with the National Strategy of Data and AI objectives to make the Kingdom one of the leading 10 countries in the open data index and one of the leading 20 countries in peer-reviewed data and AI publications by the year 2030.
The bourse filing reported that “The JV brings together center3’s scale, data-center leadership, and extensive regional connectivity with Humain’s strategic mandate to champion end-to-end capabilities — laying the groundwork for high-capacity, low-latency infrastructure critical to the AI era.”
It further added, “The financial impact is expected to be positive; however, it cannot be determined at this stage, as it depends on the project plans and investment requirements.”
The Tadawul announcement also indicated that Humain is regarded as a related party, since it is a subsidiary of PIF, which also has a share in the ownership stake of stc.
Recently, the Saudi Press Agency has reported, with reference to the data provided in the Global AI Index, that Saudi Arabia was ranked fifth in the world and first in the Arab region in terms of the growth of the AI sector.
As mentioned in the report at the time, the move highlights the advancement in AI within the Kingdom, which is an indicator of the effectiveness of the Saudi Arabian development strategies and the capacity to experience high global competitiveness as part of its economic diversification approach, Vision 2030.
